Sex Education – Must try harder. (No pun intended)

Everyone was saying such wildly positive things.

This show sounded like it ticked all the boxes.

Teenagers. Gay boys. Gay girls. Not just white peeps. Hilarity. Awkwardness. Brits.

Kinda my TV wet dream.

You should never trust people. People are delusional.

Sex Education is set in an unspecified English village but it has this weird American vibe and it’s set now – ish BUT everyone dresses like the 70’s/80’s/90’s.

This is the popular clique. What the …??!!

James Spader called and said ‘Don’t ever wear socks with dress shoes’.

This cross pollination of time and fashion hurt my head and distracted me from the story.

If you love the 80’s that much. Why not just set it in the 80’s?!

I guess cause the gay sex would be closeted and the problems ancient.

So then subtly slide in retro bits of fashion, don’t make my eyes bleed with Maeve’s fringed jacket!

She’s not joining Nickelback.

Or is she?

Cause for a ‘hot/scary girl protecting a tender heart’ she is failing. It takes no time at all to get to her gooey centre.

Effy Stonem (the now and forever queen of this glorious trope) from Skins would destroy her with a mere look, never mind a throw down.

My other main complaint is the gay romance.

It made sense in the first episode that bully Adam (who couldn’t get it up with his ‘hawt’ girlfriend) was gonna fall for flamboyant Eric. Throwing someone brutally against a locker is a classic opening gambit.

But Adam was just ”stressed” and spends the subsequent episodes pining over that girl. He’s still harassing Eric, but with zero homoerotic subtext (trust me, I peered) or growing connection.

And then they hook up in the final episode. What? Huh? With so little foreplay, it just seems like a totally forced cliffhanger.

So why did I watch it all? Why not stop the bitchkreig and just move on?

3 reasons.

1 : Otis.

The actor is awesome. The character is awesome. The jacket is awesome. (I had a similar one in the 90’s) He has no creepy ‘I might shoot up a school’ vibe. The whole nerdy sweet boy is made good again.

2 : The drama in Episode 5 (which is when the series got GOOD) is motivated by dressing up to go see Hedwig and the Angry Inch. 

So many millennial babies don’t know this musical/movie exists and that is a travesty of our time!

3 : John Hughes.

This lame looking dude gave me the romantic teenage movies of my formative years. Apparently he also ‘formatated’ the minds of the creators of Sex Education.

So while I may deplore the fashion and fails, I cannot resist the ‘John Hughes’ ishness. It goes straight to my soft underbelly and I’m sucked in just like all the other delusional fools.

So come on Season 2. Get your shit together.